Mascots and Ambassadors follow tough codes of conduct

Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2007

A host of characters - a whale, a dinosaur and a couple of pooches - will turn out at Saturday's 8th Annual Oconee County Easter Egg Hunt, competing for the limelight with the holiday's cotton-tailed star.

Children love to look up after picking up an egg to find themselves inches away from Longfellow the Whale, a mascot for the American Red Cross, said Lora Clausen. Clausen is a member of the Athens-Oconee Junior Woman's Club, which co-hosts the annual event with Publix. "Everywhere they look, there's a different mascot," she said.

But when pint-sized guests spot Scrubs, Athens Regional Medical Center's new mascot, they might not think beyond the puppy's public debut. It likely won't occur to them that there's a trained professional playing the animal carefully, avoiding crushing the tiny eggs with his giant paws.

It takes more than a $900 purple porcupine outfit to be a true mascot.

Often, Eddy Elephant or Heather Hippo have memorized a long list of rules - possibly, an entire mascot manual - before stepping onto the court for high school basketball games. Some mascots even attend special camps so they're prepared the first time a toddler waddles over for a hug.

No matter their background, mascots live by a universal rule: never let fans see them in partial costume.

Hospital spokeswoman Elaine Cook includes that rule in the 10 commandments she gives anyone who plays Scrubs.

Cook is the mother of a 7-year-old who recently asked her whether humans play the furry characters she hugs at the amusement park.

"The whole premise she had to ask will tell you it's very real to the children," Cook said.

Trey Dunn, one of two students who wear the Hairy Dawg costume for the University of Georgia, requires organizations that book him for an appearance to offer a private place for him to change into costume.

Hairy Dawg isn't a diva. That's just a necessity.

Superman might be able to discreetly change in a telephone booth, but Dunn needs a more secure location than a stall in a public restroom. "People could peep over," he said in horror.

"You just have to play it off and hope their parents are around to regulate," said Dunn.

On top of watching out for 2-year-old terrors and trying to think "cool" in a suit that can easily reach temperatures of 100 degrees on even a chilly day, good mascots constantly think WWMCD (What Would My Character Do).

The Chick-Fil-A cow, for instance, probably can't hit Kentucky Fried Chicken during a break. Nor should the Plato the Publixaurus go a-Krogering.

Playing Hairy Dawg, in particular, requires a careful character study.